Romans 3:3

Christian Standard Bible ®

What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
It is true that some Jews were not faithful to God. But will that stop God from doing what he promised?

Revised Standard Version
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
What then though some of them did not beleve? shall their vnbeleve make the promes of god with out effecte?

Hebrew Names Version
For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith make of no effect the faithfulness of God?

International Standard Version
What if some of them were unfaithful? Their unfaithfulness cannot cancel God's faithfulness, can it?Numbers 23:19; Romans 9:6; 10:16; 11:29; 2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 4:2;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

New Century Version
If some Jews were not faithful to him, will that stop God from doing what he promised?

Update Bible Version
What then? If some were without faith, shall their want of faith make of no effect the faithfulness of God?

Webster's Bible Translation
For what if some did not believe? will their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

English Standard Version
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

World English Bible
For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith make of no effect the faithfulness of God?

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For what if some believed not? Shall their unbelief disannul the faithfulness of God?

Weymouth's New Testament
For what if some Jews have proved unfaithful? Shall their faithlessness render God's faithfulness worthless?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And what if summe of hem bileueden not? Whethir the vnbileue of hem hath auoidid the feith of God?

English Revised Version
For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?

Berean Standard Bible
What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness?

Contemporary English Version
It is true that some of them did not believe the message. But does this mean that God cannot be trusted, just because they did not have faith?

Amplified Bible
What then? If some did not believe or were unfaithful [to God], their lack of belief will not nullify and make invalid the faithfulness of God and His word, will it?

American Standard Version
For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?

Bible in Basic English
And if some have no faith, will that make the faith of God without effect?

Complete Jewish Bible
If some of them were unfaithful, so what? Does their faithlessness cancel God's faithfulness?

Darby Translation
For what? if some have not believed, shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect?

Etheridge Translation
For if some of them believed not, would their unbelief abolish the faithfulness of Aloha ?

Murdock Translation
For if some of them have not believed, have they, by their not believing, made the faith of God inefficient?

King James Version (1611)
For what if some did not beleeue? shall their vnbeliefe make the faith of God without effect?

New Living Translation
True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful?

New Life Bible
If some of them were not faithful, does it mean that God will not be faithful?

New Revised Standard
What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

Geneva Bible (1587)
For what, though some did not beleeue? shall their vnbeliefe make the faith of God without effect?

George Lamsa Translation
For what if some had not believed, could their unbelief nullify the faith of God?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For what? If some distrusted, shall their distrust make, the trust of God, void?

Douay-Rheims Bible
For what if some of them have not believed? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid!

Bishop's Bible (1568)
What then though some of them dyd not beleue? Shal their vnbeliefe make the fayth of God without effect?

Good News Translation
But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful?

King James Version
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

Lexham English Bible
What is the result if some refused to believe? Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

Literal Translation
For what if some did not believe? Will not their unbelief nullify the faith of God?

Young's Literal Translation
for what, if certain were faithless? shall their faithlessness the faithfulness of god make useless?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But where as some of them dyd not beleue theron, what then? Shulde their vnbeleue make the promes of God of none effecte?

Mace New Testament (1729)
for what if some betrayed their trust? shall their unfaithfulness render

THE MESSAGE
But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.

New English Translation
What then? If some did not believe, does their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God?

New King James Version
For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?

Simplified Cowboy Version
Now some of them didn't believe his story. But just because some of them turned their backs on God, doesn't mean he's gonna turn his back on us.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

Legacy Standard Bible
What then? If some did not believe, does their unbelief abolish the faithfulness of God?

Contextual Overview

¹So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? ²Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God. ³What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? ⁴Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written: ⁵But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? ⁶Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? ⁷But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? ⁸And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved! ⁹What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, ¹⁰as it is written:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

if some: Romans 9:6, Romans 10:16, Romans 11:1-7, Hebrews 4:2

shall: Romans 11:29, Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Isaiah 54:9, Isaiah 54:10, Isaiah 55:11, Isaiah 65:15, Isaiah 65:16, Jeremiah 33:24-26, Matthew 24:35, 2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 6:13-18

faith: Psalms 84:7, John 1:16, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Thessalonians 1:3, Titus 1:1, Titus 1:2

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 7:2 - thou shalt see it Ezekiel 2:5 - whether Mark 15:32 - that Luke 1:20 - which John 3:33 - hath set John 5:34 - that Acts 28:24 - General Romans 1:17 - from faith Romans 3:2 - Much Romans 11:20 - because Romans 15:8 - for the 1 Corinthians 6:15 - God Galatians 3:17 - none Hebrews 4:1 - a promise

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:13
So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”

Genesis 3:16
He said to the woman:

Genesis 3:17
And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

Genesis 20:6
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her.

1 Chronicles 16:22
“Do not touch my anointed onesor harm my prophets.”

Job 1:11
But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Job 2:5
But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Job 19:21
Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,for God’s hand has struck me.

1 Corinthians 7:1
Now in response to the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to use a woman for sex.”

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For what if some did not believe?.... It is suggested, that though the Jews enjoyed such a privilege, some of them did not believe; which is an aggravation of their sin, that they should have such means of light, knowledge, and faith, such clear and full evidences of things, and yet be incredulous: though it should be observed that this was the case only of some, not of all; and must be understood, not of their disbelief of the Scriptures being the word of God, for these were always received as such by them all, and were constantly read, heard, and attended to; but either of their disobedience to the commands of God required in the law, or of their disregard to the promises of God, and prophecies of the Messiah, and of their disbelief in the Messiah himself when he came; but now this was no objection to the advantage they had of the Gentiles, since this was not owing to want of evidence in the word of God, but to the darkness and unbelief of their minds: and,

shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? no, their unbelief could not, and did not make void the veracity and faithfulness of God in his promises concerning the Messiah, recorded in the oracles of God, which they had committed to them; for notwithstanding this, God raised up the Messiah from among them, which is another advantage the Jews had of, the Gentiles; inasmuch as "of" them, "as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for evermore", Romans 9:5, and he sent him to them, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, as a prophet and minister; he sent his Gospel to them first, and called out by it from among them his elect, nor did he take it from them until he had done this: and he took it away only; until "the fulness of the Gentiles", Romans 11:25, is brought in; and then the Gospel shall come to them again with power, and "all Israel shall be saved" (#Ro 11:26).

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For what if some did not believe? - This is to be regarded as another objection of a Jew. “What then? or what follows? if it be admitted that some of the nation did not believe, does it not follow that the faithfulness of God in his promises will fail?” The points of the objection are these:

1. The apostle had maintained that the nation was sinful Romans 2:0; that is, that they had not obeyed or believed God.
2. This, the objector for the time admits or supposes in relation to some of them. But,

(3)He asks whether this does not involve a consequence which is not admissible, that God is unfaithful.

Did not the fact that God chose them as his people, and entered into covenant with them, imply that the Jews should be kept from perdition? It was evidently their belief that all Jews would be saved, and this belief they grounded on his covenant with their fathers. The doctrine of the apostle Romans 2:0 would seem to imply that in certain respects they were on a level with the Gentile nations; that if they sinned, they would be treated just like the pagan; and hence, they asked of what value was the promise of God? Had it not become vain and nugatory?

Make the faith - The word “faith” here evidently means the “faithfulness” or “fidelity of God to his promises.” Compare Matthew 13:23; 2 Timothy 3:10; Hosea 2:20.

Of none effect - Destroy it; or prevent him from fulfilling his promises. The meaning of the objection is, that the fact supposed, that the Jews would become unfaithful and be lost, would imply that God had failed to keep his promises to the nation; or that he had made promises which the result showed he was not able to perform.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 3:3. JEW. For what — τιγαρ, What then, if some did not believe, &c. If some of the Jewish nation have abused their privileges, and acted contrary to their obligations, shall their wickedness annul the PROMISE which God made to Abraham, that he would, by an everlasting covenant, be a God to him and to his seed after him? Genesis 17:7. Shall God, therefore, by stripping the Jews of their peculiar honour, as you intimate he will, falsify his promise to the nation, because some of the Jews are bad men?